The Treaty of Georgievsk (; ) was a bilateral treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and the east Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti on July 24, 1783. The treaty established eastern Georgia as a protectorate of Russia, which guaranteed its territorial integrity and the continuation of its reigning Bagrationi dynasty in return for prerogatives in the conduct of Georgian foreign affairs.

Despite promises made in the treaty, Russia failed to intervene when Georgian cities were again again attacked, resulting in humiliation of both Georgia and Russia's reputation. To restore Russian prestige, Catherine II, on the advice of Ivan Gudovich, belatedly declared war on Persia, but this was short lived. Russia effectively scrapped the treaty in 1801, when in violation of the agreement it proceeded to directly incorporate Georgian lands into the Russian Empire and deposed the Georgian monarchy.

Terms

Under articles I, II, IV, VI, and VII of the treaty's terms, Russia's empress became the official and sole suzerain of Kartli-Kakheti's rulers, guaranteeing the Georgians’ internal sovereignty and territorial integrity, and promising to "regard their enemies as Her enemies"

Each of the Georgian kingdom's tsars would henceforth be obliged to swear allegiance to Russia's emperors, to support Russia in war, and to have no diplomatic communications with other nations without Russia's prior consent.

Given Georgia's history of invasions from the south, an alliance with Russia may have been seen as the only way to discourage or resist Persian and Ottoman aggression, while also establishing a link to Western Europe. Continued pressure from Persia, also prompted George XII's request for Russian intervention.

Paul tentatively accepted this offer, but before negotiations could be finalized changed his mind and issued a decree on December 18, 1800, annexing Kartli-Kakheti to Russia and deposing the Bagratids. Paul himself died shortly thereafter. It is said that his successor, Emperor Alexander I, considered retracting the annexation in favor of a Bagratid heir, but being unable to identify one likely to retain the crown, on September 12, 1801, Alexander proceeded to confirm annexation. In 1948, Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, (1917–1992), pretender to Russia's throne, married Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhranskaya, (born 1914), a descendant of the Mukhranbatoni who negotiated the 1783 treaty, and thus a member of the once royal House of Bagrationi. The marriage produced an only child, Maria Vladimirovna, (born 1956), who has taken up her father's claim as Russia's de jure monarch. She and her son, George (born of her former marriage to Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia), have pretended to the Romanovs’ old grand ducal title. Her supporters argue that her father's marriage to Leonida, alone among those contracted by Romanov males in exile since 1917, complied with the Romanov house law that required marriage to a princess of a "royal or ruling family" in order for descendants to claim the throne. Members of the family accepted court appointments under Russia's emperors incompatible with claims to dynastic dignity. Moreover, when an imperial Romanov princess wed Prince Constantine Bagration-Mukhransky in 1911, the marriage was officially deemed non-dynastic by Nicholas II, and the bride, Tatiana Konstantinova Romanova, was obliged to renounce her succession rights.

While these facts are admitted, it is counter-argued that the demotion of the Bagratids, including the Mukhrani branch, violated the Treaty of Georgievsk and therefore failed to legally deprive any Bagrationi of royal rank.

References

Sources

  • Anchabadze, Dr. George. History of Georgia
  • Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. 1980 "Burke’s Royal Families of the World: Volume II Africa & the Middle East",

Further reading

  • David Marshall Lang: The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy: 1658–1832. Columbia University Press, New York 1957.
  • Nikolas K. Gvosdev, Imperial policies and perspectives towards Georgia: 1760–1819. Macmillan [u.a.], Basingstoke [u.a.] 2000, .
  • "Traité conclu en 1783 entre Cathérine II. impératrice de Russie et Iracly II. roi de Géorgie". Recueil des lois russes; vol. XXI, No. 15835, Avec une préface de M. Paul Moriaud, Professeur de da Faculté de Droit de l'université de Genève, et commentaires de A. Okouméli, Genève 1909.
  • Zurab Avalov, Prisoedinenie Gruzii k Rossii. Montvid, S.-Peterburg 1906.
  • Treaty of Georgievsk (Translated from the Russian by Russell E. Martin, Westminster College)
  • The Portfolio; A Collection of State Papers, and other Document and Correspondence, Historical, Diplomatic, and Commercial, Vol. V, <!-- pg=209 quote=Heraclius Georgian. --> pp. 206–209. London: 1837